Rabies - From Animal To Man, Dogs, Cats, And Bats, Rabies In Humans

disease fatalities occur causes

Rabies is a viral brain disease that is almost always fatal if it is allowed to develop and is not prevented with prompt treatment. The disease, which typically spreads to humans from animals through a scratch or a bite, causes inflammation of the brain. The disease is also called hydrophobia (meaning fear of water) because it causes painful muscle spasms in the throat that prevent swallowing. In fact, this is what leads to fatalities in untreated cases: victims become dehydrated and die. Carriers of rabies include dogs, cats, bats, skunks, raccoons, and foxes; rodents are not likely to be infected. About 70% of rabies cases develop from wild animal bites that break the skin. Though a vaccine used first in 1885 is widely used, fatalities still occur due to rabies. Most fatalities take place in Africa and Asia, but some also occur in the United States. The cost of efforts to prevent rabies in the United States may be as high as $1 billion per year.

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While many animal diseases cannot be passed from animal to man, rabies has long been known as an easy traveler from one species to the next. The disease was known among ancient people. The very name rabies, Latin for "rage" or "madness," suggests the fear with which early men and women must have viewed the disease. For centuries there was no treatment, and the disease w…

The dog is a most important animal as a disseminator of rabies virus, not only to man but also to other animals. Wild carnivora may be infected and transmit the disease. In the United States, foxes and skunks are the most commonly involved. These animals are sometimes responsible for infecting domestic farm animals. The disease in wildlife (especially skunks, foxes, racoons, and bats) has become m…

There are few deaths from rabies in the United States. Between 1980 and the middle of 1994, a total of 19 people in the United States died of rabies, far fewer than the 200 Americans killed by lightning, to give one example. Eight of these cases were acquired outside the United States. Eight of the 11 cases contracted in the United States stemmed from bat-transmitted strains of rabies. Internation…

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